Google Moon - Been there - lets do it again to stay

Well we aren't back to the Moon with humans yet.
This gives us a little more time to learn what we can and see where we
might like to go.

Pop in on the Moon with Google Moon and enjoy the view.

Maybe later we will have updates that show your kids habitats.
- LRK -

Apollo Series
These six missions of the Apollo Program, which lasted from 1963 to
1972, were the first and last times that Mankind has set foot on another
world.
http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=9.442552&lon=7.737204&zoom=3&apollo=apollo
A mosaic of landing site images and a tour of the Apollo landings

Google Sky
http://www.google.com/sky/

Google Sky, Mars, and Moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX9MeF2Au9c&NR=1

Google Moon (Part II of "The Googling")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYVLpC_8SQE


Be careful though. :-)

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
Bob in Conroe, Texas sends -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,391480,00.html

International Space Race Heats Up as More Players Jump In
Monday, July 28, 2008

As NASA's space-shuttle program nears its official end in 2010, space
exploration has become an increasingly global competition.

The Europeans, Russians, Chinese and others are competing for bragging rights to
develop the next generation of manned spacecraft.

NASA's Constellation program, designed both to replace the space shuttle and get
America back to the moon and on to Mars, has gotten a lot of publicity and a
lot of flak as it threatens to go over budget and behind schedule.

Meanwhile, the Europeans and Russians have teamed up to create their own
platform, the Chinese are continually upgrading their vehicles and the Japanese and Indians are mulling their own
manned space flights.

snip
==============================================================
Lunar Bases and Settlement
http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/index.html

snip
==============================================================
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/

http://ads.harvard.edu/books/lbsa/toc.html

Copyright © 1986 by the
Lunar and Planetary Institute <http://www.lpi.usra.edu>.

Made available electronically by the
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) <http://adswww.harvard.edu>


http://www.amazon.com/Lunar-Bases-Space-Activities-Century/dp/0942862023
snip
==============================================================
*The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century
http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/library/lunar2.htm

*Edited by W. W. Mendell. NASA Conferences Publication 3166, Volume 1 (Parts
1-4) & Volume 2 (Parts 5-8), 1992, 706 pages. Available here in PDF
as individual papers below.

*Table of Contents and Prologue* [PDF 585K
<http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/library/LB2-0-ContentsAndPrologue.pdf>]

*Volume 1:
Part 1: Lunar Transportation Systems
**Part 2: Lunar Base Site Selection
**Part 3: Lunar Surface Architecture and Construction
**Part 4: Scientific Investigations at a Lunar Base

*Volume 2:
Part 5: Utilization of Lunar Resources
**Part 6: Life Support and Crew Health at a Lunar Base
**Part 7: Operations and Infrastructure on the Lunar Surface
**Part 8: Enabling a Program for Human Exploration of Space

*Indexes and Acronym Glossary* [PDF 2.7 MB
<http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/library/LB2-IndexAndAcronymGlossary.pdf>]


snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for a major ESA/NASA mission planned for the near future

Bob, in New Zealand, passed me a couple of links about Hubble Space
Telescope findings and the LISA Pathfinder mission progress. (see
below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand

I thought I should take a better look at what the LISA Pathfinder is about.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120397_index_0_m.html

LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for a major ESA/NASA mission planned
for the near future: LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), aimed
at detecting gravitational waves generated by very massive objects
such as black holes. Detecting gravitational waves will tell us more
about the way space and time are interconnected.

The mission consists of placing two test-masses in a nearly perfect
gravitational free-fall, and of controlling and measuring their motion
with unprecedented accuracy. This is achieved through state-of-the-art
technology comprising inertial sensors, a laser metrology system, a
drag-free control system and an ultra-precise micro-propulsion system.

All these technologies are essential not only for LISA; they also lie
at the heart of any future space-based test of Einstein's General
Relativity. LISA Pathfinder is scheduled for launch at the end of
2009.
snip
--------------------------------------------------------------------

When you read the whole article from the European Space Agency, it
reads like science fiction.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120397_index_0_m.html
snip
Very first detection of gravitational waves in space

With LISA Pathfinder, the technology needed to detect gravitational
waves will be tested in space for the very first time. Using this
technology, LISA will be able to show whether a key prediction of
Albert Einstein's, put forward more than 90 years ago in his General
Theory of Relativity, is indeed correct. The prediction is that
ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves, criss-cross the
Universe, however, these waves have never been detected directly. By
detecting these ripples, LISA will tell us more about the way in which
space and time are interwoven. LISA will detect these waves, their
intensity, properties and direction in order to investigate elusive
objects such as black holes and neutron star binary systems within our
galaxy that we would otherwise have no way of observing.

snip
--------------------------------------------------------------------

You probably have seen criss-crossed standing waves in a stream where
two rocks stick out and the water flowing by makes ripples that
radiate out and cross each other. They might look like they are fixed
in place and yet the water is rushing by. What if massive bodies were
to disturb the gravitational attraction each feels of the other and
there would be some way to experience this?

If you thought you had an idea of how to test this theory, how long
would you persevere in seeing a mission take place that could go out
in space and sense the disturbance in the force?
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120397_index_0_m.html
snip
History

LISA Pathfinder was approved by the ESA Science Programme Committee
(SPC) in November 2000. It was further reconfirmed by the same body
and by the ESA Council in May 2002, as part of ESA's new 'Cosmic
Vision' Scientific Programme.

snip
--------------------------------------------------------------------

How would you go about making the spacecraft quiet enough to feel any
disturbance from out there in space while you are in orbit around the
L1 point?
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120397_index_0_m.html
snip
The Disturbance Reduction System (DRS) is an experiment provided by
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which includes also a
set of micro-rockets that aim to control the spacecraft's position to
within a millionth of a millimetre. Once validated by this mission,
the technology on LISA Pathfinder will be ready to be used in the more
complex and further-reaching mission LISA. There the relative movement
of two spacecrafts located 5 million kilometres apart will be measured
to an accuracy of 10 picometres (1 picometre is equal to one millionth
of a millionth of a metre).
snip
--------------------------------------------------------------------

And you thought your were just going to lay out in the Sun with
nothing between you and the rays.
May the force be with you and may you be one with it.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
LISA Pathfinder

System level acoustic tests completed
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=43456
23 Sep 2008 11:23
The LISA Pathfinder system level acoustic tests were performed on 9
and 10 September 2007 at the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF)
at ESTEC, The Netherlands. The purpose of these tests was to confirm
the load levels on the spacecraft units arising from random
vibrations. Initial assessment of the test results indicates that the
loads were as expected.

The science and propulsion modules arrived at ESTEC in early August.
Since then the modules have been in one of the clean rooms being
prepared for these acoustic tests, the first in a series of system
level tests scheduled for this year. The tests are performed on
representative models of the flight modules with dummy masses taking
the place of most system units.
snip

LISA Pathfinder modules ready for acoustic tests
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=43462
01 Sep 2008 09:43
The LISA Pathfinder science and propulsion modules are now ready for
acoustic testing in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) at
ESTEC, The Netherlands. In the four weeks since the modules arrived at
ESTEC engineers have been busy preparing the units for this first
system test.

For these acoustic tests a spare flight model of the science module
has been equipped with representative models of the micro-propulsion
thrusters, the flight model of the solar array and a number of dummy
masses (which take the place of many of the standard system units).
snip
==============================================================
When it comes to galaxies, diversity is everywhere [heic0819]
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=43485

A thorough survey using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has
observed around 14 million stars in 69 galaxies.
Some galaxies were found to be full of ancient stars, while others are
like sun-making factories.
snip

The detailed study, called the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury
(ANGST) program, explored a region called the Local Volume, where
galaxy distances range from 6.5 million light-years to 13 million
light-years from Earth.
snip

Many stars in nearby galaxies are the fossil equivalents of new stars
forming in the far Universe. "When we look back in time at distant,
young galaxies, we see lots of vigorous star formation. However, we
can only guess as to what those galaxies might eventually turn into,"
Dalcanton explained. "Using the galaxies in the nearby Universe as a
'fossil record', we can compare them with young galaxies far away.
This comparison gives us a history of star formation and provides a
better understanding of the masses, structures, and environments of
the galaxies."

snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) - fly me to the Moon

Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) - fly me to the Moon

David said that in England there was a video on the discovery channel
called Moon Machines.
One of the machines was designed by MIT, a small silicon computer that
would take the astronauts to the Moon.
They mentioned the 1201 and 1202 errors due to having the radar turned
on at the wrong time during the first landing.

I saw a TV show on similar or maybe the same subject some time back.
It showed the making of the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC).
They showed the machines that were made to wire the logic circuits for
the firmware that let women pass a shuttle cock through to wire wrap
around the proper post to make the connections. Each card was then
placed on a tester that called up the logic it was supposed to solve.
Remember this is back in the 60's.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was the first recognizably modern
embedded system, used in real-time by astronaut pilots to collect and
provide flight information, and to automatically control all of the
navigational functions of the Apollo spacecraft. It was developed in
the early 1960s for the Apollo program by the MIT Instrumentation
Laboratory under Charles Stark Draper, with hardware design led by
Eldon C. Hall. Based upon MIT documents, early architectural work
seems to have come from J.H. Laning Jr., Albert Hopkins, Ramon Alonso,
and Hugh Blair-Smith. The actual flight hardware was fabricated by
Raytheon, whose Herb Thaler was also on the architectural team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is interesting what was done with so little memory and storage for firmware.

I pulled a UNIVAC Digital Trainer out of salvage when I was at the
Navy training center just north of Memphis Tenn.
It took me about six months of playing with the circuit cards and
logic diagrams in the evenings to get it to work.

http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64-u.html - UNIVAC 422 TRNG COMP
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL64.html#TOC - BRL Report 1964

I think it had about 512 (15 bit) words of memory and was made up of
little circuit cards that were NOR gates made up of a transistor, some
diodes and some resistors. When I left my assignment there I gave it
back to salvage and had tears in my eyes.

When I got out of the Navy in 1983 I went to work supporting the
Pioneer programs at NASA Ames and they had Sigma V computers that were
still using transistors and diodes to make NOR gates to then make half
adders, that combined made full adders and WOW, you could add 1 to 1
and get 10 (in binary addition).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Sigma_V

SDS Sigma-5 was a 32-bit computer that was introduced by the Xerox
company in 1965. (Scientific Data Systems [SDS] was a company Xerox
had acquired in 1969.) This was a reduced-capability version of the
Sigma 7 computer. It was commercially retired in the 1970s after Xerox
left the Mainframe computer manufacturing business.
snip
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we are now in 2008 and you can try your skill and landing.
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/lunarlander/lunarlander.html

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://klabs.org/history/build_agc/

NASA Office of Logic Design

A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space
flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

________________________________

Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC):
How to build one in your basement

snip
==============================================================
http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch2-5.html
Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience
________________________________
- Chapter Two -
- Computers On Board The Apollo Spacecraft -
The Apollo guidance computer: Hardware

[34] The Apollo Guidance Computer was fairly compact for a computer of
its time. The CM housed the computer in a lower equipment bay, near
the navigator's station. Block II measured 24 by 12.5 by 6 inches,
weighed 70.1 pounds, and required 70 watts at 28 volts DC. The machine
in the lunar module was identical.

Crew members could communicate with either computer using display and
keyboard units (DSKY, pronounced "disky"). Two DSKYs were in the CM,
one on the main control panel and one near the optical instruments at
the navigator's station. In addition, a "mark" button was at the
navigator's station to signal the computer when a star fix was being
taken. A single DSKY was in the lunar module. The DSKYs were 8 by 8 by
7 inches and weighed 17.5 pounds. As well as the DSKYs, the computer
directly hooked to the inertial measurement unit and, in the CM, to
the optical units.

The choice of a 1 6-bit word size was a careful one. Many scientific
computers of the time used 24-bit or longer word lengths and, in
general, the longer the word the better the precision of the
calculations. MIT considered the following factors in deciding the
word length: (a) precision desired for navigation variables, (b) range
of input variables, and (c) the instruction word format. Advantages of
a shorter word are simpler circuits and higher speeds, and greater
precision could be obtained by using multiple words. A single
precision word of data consisted of 14 bits, with the other 2 bits as
a sign bit (with a one indicating negative) and a parity bit (odd
parity). Two [35] adjacent words yielded "double precision" and three
adjacent, "triple precision." To store a three-dimensional vector
required three double precision words . Data storage was as fractions
(all numbers were less than one). An instruction word used bits 15-13
(they were numbered descending left to right) as an octal operation
code. The address used bits 12-1. Direct addressing was limited, so a
"bank register" scheme (discussed below) existed to make it possible
to address the entire memory.

The Apollo computer had a simple packaging system. The computer
circuits were in two trays consisting of 24 modules. Each module had
two groups of 60 flat packs with 72-pin connectors. The flatpacks each
held two logic gates. Tray A held the logic circuits, interfaces, and
the power supply, and tray B had the memory, memory electronics,
analog alarm devices, and the clock, which had a speed of one
megahertz. All units of the computer were hermetically sealed. The
memory in Block II consisted of a segment of erasable core and six
modules of core rope fixed memory. Both types are discussed fully
below.

snip

Contents
http://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html

http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Compspace.html
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA History Office
________________________________

NASA Contractor Report 182505 Computers in Spaceflight The NASA
Experience James E. Tomayko Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================